Emrys | 19 | they/them | nationality & ethnicity:American, raised in Filipino household
“Yellow”.
Whenever I hear the word “yellow” I usually wind upwith a pinched
face and a bad attitude. While I wouldn’t be referredto as yellow, and
while my grandmother probably wouldn’t be (Filipinoshave darker
skin) I still have hatred for the term.
“Asian”.
I feel like genetics, upbringing, and cultural participationplay a part
the most in this. Someone whose grandmother is Koreanand their
grandfather was white, and their other parent waswhite might feel
inclined to call themselves Asian, meanwhile thereare people who
take a DNA test, see 2% of their genetics come from“Asia” and proclaim
themselves as Asian, which doesn’t sit right withme. The word “Asian”
itself is a very broad term, with two general regionsbeing the most
popular, East-Asian, which most people think of, characteristically
yellow undertones, mono-lid eyes, and round faces,and
Southeast-asian, usually darker skin tones and hoodedlids, usually
people think of the Philippines or Polynesia. Northwest-Asia,aka
Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan andWest-Asian
“Middle East” countries such as Iran, Iraq, India,Pakistan, Afghanistan,
etc. are widely forgotten about in western countries,most US citizens
probably couldn’t point it out on a map, and mostEuropean or
American citizens probably wouldn’t even think ofthose countries as
being “Asian”, but when you look at the continentsof the world, they
are included in what qualifies as “Asia”. There’sparticularly a lot of
discrimination from people of East-Asian descent aboutskin color,
whether someone qualifies as “Asian”, and culturalpractices, meanwhile
in some countries like Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan,for example, they
consider themselves Middle Eastern, not Asian, andsome go so far as
to say the continent borders should be reevaluatedto consider
middle-eastern countries as they are.
Ethnicity|part1.
My ethnicity is white, I’m not a P.O.C, but I wasraised in part by my
Lola, a Filipina woman, and my grandpa’s second wife.I grew up in a
largely Filipino community, and the culture impactsme greatly, but my
ethnicity does not change. I’ve never been a partof that “culture”
though, (or what people often refer to as “white culture”aka
appropriated ideas off of other cultures, turned bad.I’m not mad, my
race has hurt millions of people across the globebecause they think
they’re “pure”. I can take a bit of salt with myself.)
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